Stealing the communion bread was both a problem for the authorities in medieval Europe, but also quite understandable. But in the context of Reformation Geneva, it unveils an entirely new set of problems.

John Muir spent his first winter as a shepherd on the plains of the Central Valley. His comments merit some comparison with Antoine Saunier’s description of Geneva in his 1538 prospectus for the Genevan school. Taken together, we have a sense of how the perception of mountains changed in the 300 years between Saunier and Muir and has changed again since Muir’s day.